Page 242 - the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer

‘He didn’t stay with us,’ said Mrs. Harper, beginning to
look uneasy. A marked anxiety came into Aunt Polly’s face.
‘Joe Harper, have you seen my Tom this morning?’
‘No’m.’
‘When did you see him last?’
Joe tried to remember, but was not sure he could say. The
people had stopped moving out of church. Whispers passed
along, and a boding uneasiness took possession of every
countenance. Children were anxiously questioned, and
young teachers. They all said they had not noticed whether
Tom and Becky were on board the ferryboat on the home-
ward trip; it was dark; no one thought of inquiring if any
one was missing. One young man finally blurted out his
fear that they were still in the cave! Mrs. Thatcher swooned
away. Aunt Polly fell to crying and wringing her hands.
The alarm swept from lip to lip, from group to group,
from street to street, and within five minutes the bells were
wildly clanging and the whole town was up! The Cardiff
Hill episode sank into instant insignificance, the burglars
were forgotten, horses were saddled, skiffs were manned,
the ferryboat ordered out, and before the horror was half an
hour old, two hundred men were pouring down highroad
and river toward the cave.
All the long afternoon the village seemed empty and
dead. Many women visited Aunt Polly and Mrs. Thatcher
and tried to comfort them. They cried with them, too, and
that was still better than words. All the tedious night the
town waited for news; but when the morning dawned at last,
all the word that came was, ‘Send more candles — and send

1